Waste Audit Introduction

Priscilla HayesSolid Waste Resource Renewal

Group

What is a Waste Audit?• Discover what waste you

generate• What are you not recycling—

you will find things you don’t expect

• Review purchasing and management decisions

• How to reduce waste• How to recycle more—what

bins are needed, where, what systems to put into place, what training is needed

Why a Waste Audit?• Saving money on

costly disposal• Regulatory

Requirements• Reducing waste and

thus disposal costs• Positive

environmental company image

Designate a Leader

• Establish a team, size depending on the company size

• Familiar with company

• Incorporate opinions from whole company

• Short/long term goals• Notify all employees• Monitor waste over

time

Gather Facility-Specific Info

• Examine facility records

• Track inventory to determine what is used

• Determine hazardous materials

• Repair invoices• Waste removal

invoices• Recycling contracts

Facility Walk Through

• What waste produced• Waste producing

activities• Spot inefficiencies• Layout of operations• Waste disposal space• Current waste efforts• Interview employees

Evaluation and Monitoring

• Evaluate how to incorporate the results of the audit into waste/recycling changes

• Equipment requirements• Space requirements• Operation requirements• Signage requirements• Training requirements• Motivating individual

participation in changed system

Identify Source Reduction Possibilities

• Paper• Packaging• Equipment• Landscaping• Purchasing• Over-stocked items• Food• Consumer Choices

Two Ways of Doing a Waste Audit Which Reveal Somewhat Different Things

• Audit only the things which are currently not being recycled—this involves going through trash bags and separating everything from there—this will show you a lot about things that are already recyclable that you are losing to trash

• Have temporary bins set up for each material you want to capture; this is cleaner but requires a lot of bin supervision or buy in from the entire facility—this is our recommendation for audits which are particularly focused on food waste or on materials you are not already recycling

ONLINE AT http://www.swrrg.rutgers.edu/ audits.html

Waste Sort Inspection

• Physically sort waste and determine percentage makeup

• Types of waste• Disposal problems• Special equipment • Waste removal• Recycling info

Ultimate Temporary Bin Sort— Whole Earth Center, Princeton

WASTE AUDITS

Students Do A Waste Audit

Individuals Getting Into Waste Audits

What you as a Wastewise Business can do—Evaluate Your Collection and Hauling Systems

• Calculate how much waste, by tonnage and volume is being collected, and how

• If food waste and other waste organics were separated, what would be left? Can the collection or hauling system be changed? Reduce frequency, change size of containers?

• Build a system which will give you the utmost benefit from recycling food waste. This usually means contracting directly with the recycling market for food waste for tipping fee price, and then with the hauler for hauling costs only. Separate out the handling of the separate parts of your waste stream so that there is not a commingling of costs.

AFTER THE WASTE AUDIT—SOME SYSTEM RECONFIGURATIONS: HYATT REGENCY PRINCETON

Opportunity to Choose Containers

Reconfiguring Bins

Innovative Follow Up • See the WasteWise Resource Management Guide at

http://www.epa.gov/osw/partnerships/wastewise/wrr/rm.h tm.

• Consider using a Request for Information sent out to haulers/recycling markets to determine how they could be partners in your enhanced recylcing system.

• Require your hauler/markets to give you specific data on what is recycled on at least a quarterly basis. This will allow you to assess your progress, and have data for Wastewise forms.

More Innovation: Whole Earth Center— Using A Waste Audit to Get LEED Credits

• Most complete waste audit we ever did, with the most categories for sorting

• Recommended by architect to get additional LEED credits for their green building renovation (EB)

• Discovered that they were already recycling (with a little tweaking) 68.63% of their waste stream

• Found two major categories, wooden crates, and waxy cardboard, which would give them an additional 18.64% being recycled

• Looking for the right markets for these

Priscilla E. Hayes, Esq., Program CoordinatorSolid Waste Resource Renewal Group

Turning Waste Into New Products Through Innovation and Policy ChangeProud Winner of 2009 USEPA Environmental Quality Award

c/o Department of Agricultural, Food and Resource EconomicsRutgers New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station

Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey55 Dudley Road

New Brunswick, NJ 08901-8520732-932-9155, ext. 233

Fax: 732-932-8887hayes@aesop.rutgers.edu

Please visit our websites:http://swrrg.rutgers.edu

http://enviropurchasing.rutgers.edu